1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to selling manufactured products, real properties, remodeling services, and construction services.
2. Description of the Related Art
A significant financial cost and a significant period of time are typically required to update a portion of an existing structure, for example, to remodel a room in a residential or a commercial property. Constructing an entirely new improvement on a plot of land, for example, a residence, an office building, or a pool also requires a significant financial cost and a significant period of time. One drawback of the process is that the changed or new structure must actually be built before the changes or additions can be seen. The finished changes or additions may end up appearing differently from the way that the customer had envisioned. In this case, the end result might not be as desired and the customer might be quite unsatisfied. At that time, however, the customer has already paid for the materials and the labor and has waited for the lengthy construction process to be completed. To now perform additional changes or to completely change the finished product will likely be cost prohibitive and will certainly be wasteful of time and resources.
Another problem relates to the conventional manner of selling real properties. A real estate agent typically brings a customer or prospective buyer to a large number of real properties before the buyer finds a property that is of interest. This is very time consuming and burdensome for both the real estate agent and the buyer. Another drawback is that the conventional manner of selling real properties does not allow the buyer to experience what the property might look like if certain portions or aspects of the property were remodeled, or if different furniture or other household items were placed in the property.
Additionally, even after the time consuming process of visiting a large number of properties has been completed, and even after the buyer has placed a bid on a property and the seller has accepted that bid, there are many things that can prevent a contract from being completed. For example, if the property does not pass an inspection, the buyer, the seller, or both may no longer wish to complete the contract to purchase the property. Problems with the title to the property can also cause the contract to fail. Another example of a potential problem is that the financing for the deal might fall through. In any of those occurrences, the large amount of time that the real estate agent and the buyer have spent visiting properties has been wasted. The time expended by the seller, the title company, and the lender has also been wasted.
In fact, the entire real estate sales process is very inefficient and burdensome for the buyer. The buyer wastes a lot of time in traffic while visiting a lot of properties. The buyer visits a lot of properties that do not meet the buyer's needs. The buyer does not know how much it will cost to furnish the property, or how much it will cost to rehab the property. The cost of even simple cosmetic repairs, such as, changing doorknobs, caulking holes, and applying touch-up paint is not known. The buyer must pay for an appraisal and for an inspection, and if the deal falls through, these costs are not recovered. The buyer may not always be made aware of all suitable properties that are for sale, even when other buyers may be aware of such properties. Lenders do not always accurately disclose the costs to the buyer. Buyers may spend a lot time showing the property to friends and family and that time is wasted if the deal dies. If the buyer doesn't make an offer on a property, the time spent visiting that property is wasted. It may be difficult for the buyer to obtain time off from work. Visiting numerous properties in one day is an exhausting ordeal for a buyer. Typically, at the end of a day, the buyer cannot remember all of the properties that were visited and/or the buyer can't remember which property was which. Usually the buyer will not remember the specific features of each property or what specific furnishings are in each property.
The real estate sales process is inefficient and burdensome for the seller as well. The seller will typically pay a high commission. The seller will have to tolerate a lot of undesirable things due to the large number of people visiting the property. Lights may be left on, doors may be left open, a lot of strangers will visit the property, nosy neighbors will visit the property, and people who are really just looking rather than being interested buyers will visit the property. The seller needs to keep the property clean at all times. Valuable items may be stolen from the property. The entire sales process is a gross invasion of the seller's privacy. The seller must also accept the risk that a deal will die after a contract is signed.